an aloy, astrid & diego in den haag

My tour-guiding of astrid in holland has officially begun! My deed for her. We've so far gone around den haag, also known as the Hague. Along with Diego (Maranan), we walked along the Scheveningen Beach... a surprisingly nice beach with a big shore area and a long coastline. The water is, of course, friggin cold. Little trivia: at the end of the WWII, they distinguished the Dutch from the Germans by asking them to say "Scheveningen". (those who can say gert's name might pass this test, hehe).

It was a lovely sunny day (which meant it was somewhere near 20 deg, and there was some sun). So we spent a decent amount of sun time tambay-ing at the beach. Where Astrid found much joy in terrorizing the sea gulls and Diego displayed some of his contemporary dance moves.

We did much walking around the city centre as well, through parks and famous old buildings... "ooh, lookee this is where the prime minister works" (Buitenhof--- see picture below... well, it's the church in the compound actually), "that's where the queen's office is, haler, queen!"... and most importantly, "aha!! a bookstore!!".

Den Haag is the political center of the Netherlands (while Amsterdam is the official capital) . Parliament, Embassies... museums, they're all here. The Philippines embassy is here as well, with a lobby TV that is tuned in to the Filipino Channel. It gives an over-all feeling that this old city still breathes quite conservatively. Next stop: Amsterdam hopefully : )